Logano marked driver after Hamlin crash

FILE - In this March 24, 2013, file photo, rescue workers tend to the wreckage of Denny Hamlin (11) after he collided with Joey Logano on the final lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race in Fontana, Calif. NASCAR is not penalizing Tony Stewart for scuffling with Joey Logano on pit road at California, and viewed the crash between Logano and Denny Hamlin as a racing incident. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
— AP

FILE - In this March 24, 2013, file photo, rescue workers tend to the wreckage of Denny Hamlin (11) after he collided with Joey Logano on the final lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race in Fontana, Calif. NASCAR is not penalizing Tony Stewart for scuffling with Joey Logano on pit road at California, and viewed the crash between Logano and Denny Hamlin as a racing incident. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
/ AP

At 22, Joey Logano probably doesn’t realize the size of the hole he dug for himself last Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

It wasn’t so much what Logano did -- and I maintain that much of the fault for the last-lap crash with Denny Hamlin falls on Logano – as to how he reacted and what ultimately happened to Hamlin.

It’s never good when one of your least popular drivers tangles with one a fan favorite and the more popular driver comes out on the short end.

In a sport where major injuries are rare, Hamlin will miss at least six weeks with a compression fracture in the F-1 vertebra in his lower back. Unless he wins two races after his return, Hamlin’s chances of competing in the Chase for the Championship playoffs at the end of the season are nil.

Here’s one take on the accident, which is shared by several people who have studied the replays.

Logano and Hamlin, former teammates who have been feuding, were racing for the lead when Logan narrowed the side-by-side space between the two cars. Logano then got loose.

Usually, a driver lifts in such a circumstance. But with the finish line and a win so close, Logano didn’t lift. The accident was almost inevitable.

But Logano had no idea that Hamlin was going to ram that hard into an inside wall that was unprotected by one of NASCAR’s foam SAFER barriers.

Nor did he know how bad Hamlin was hurt when he made his post-race remarks on Fox television. For those who missed it, Hamlin said: “He (Hamlim) probably shouldn’t have done what he did last week (at Bristol), to that’s what he gets.”

Even before the crash and his comments, Logano was on thin ice with a lot of veterans in the series who have never warmed to the personality of the youngest winner in Sprint Cup history. Car owner Roger Penske came to his driver’s defense earlier in the week.

No one was more critical of Logano than tony Stewart, who confronted Logano after the Haml;in crash.

“There no excuse for Joey to do what he did,” said Stewart. “I mean he’s sent Denny (Hamlin) to the hospital and screwed our day up. He’s talked the talk, but he hasn’t walked the walk yet. He’s always got his crew guys walking the walk for him.

“I’m just tired of watching these kids whine and then they sit there and act tough on pit road as soon as one of his crew guys gets in the middle of it. Until then he’s a scared little kid. Then he wants to sit there and throw a water bottle at me.

“He is going to learn a lesson. He can run his mouth on Twitter and stuff all he wants tonight. I’ve got plenty of people that are going to watch for that. It’s time he learns a lesson. He’s nothing but a little rich kid that has never had to work in his life. He’s going to learn with us working guys that had to work our way up how it works.”